Housing crisis Financial News

The Canadian government is likely severely underestimating the cost of living for international students when weighing if they can support themselves financially, a new survey suggests.

Nova Scotia Health (NSH) Community Transitions director Wendy McVeigh.According to NSH, there is currently one client support worker (CSW) on the health floor working alongside continuing care assistants (CCA).Five CSW’s are required to fill the 24/7 schedule for the floor to operate fully — meaning 21 out of the 28 rooms on the floor are currently unoccupied.“Empty rooms going and people are freezing, I don’t understand this,” said Richard Young.He’s been living in a tent at Grand Parade in front of City Hall and lives rough on the daily.The thought of empty rooms that could otherwise provide shelter doesn’t make sense to Young.“It was minus four the other night, some people didn’t have sleeping bags,” Young recalled “We don’t have heaters, we have summer tents, so it’s just like putting a thin sheet over you — you’re freezing.”While space may exist on the health floor, Nova Scotia’s Department of Community Services (DCS) says The Bridge is typically at 95-100 per cent capacity.There are 152 rooms available for clients, not including the health floor, but the numbers of clients served may be higher as some people share rooms with partners or siblings.Even though NSH are working on the staffing shortage to get CSW’s on its floor, medical staff at The Bridge have been kept busy — serving the entire building rather than just the designated floor.“The early stage of this was, ‘we needed a health floor,’ but as we’re evolving it’s not a health floor because the health services go wherever the person is,” said McVeigh.She says it’s about wraparound coordination of services for clients: health, housing and social supports.“We have health services throughout the building now, we have the health clinic operational seven days a

The federal government’s removal of GST for rentals in Canada is a welcome step to create more housing affordability but its impact on rents likely won’t be felt any time soon, experts told Global News.

Canada’s housing supply gap has shrunk marginally since last year, but the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) projects the country will still be short 3.45 million homes by 2030 in order for housing to be affordable for most Canadians.

London Ont., will be the first recipient of money from the federal government’s $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).

living wage calculations reflect costs in June 2023, and take into account government transfers added to the family’s income, like child benefits, as well as deductions subtracted, like taxes and EI premiums.“The wage should be enough for the family to avoid severe financial stress, support the healthy development of their children, and participate in their social, civic, and cultural communities,” the report said.The report, released Thursday, said the living wage is $7.85 to $11.59 higher than what the minimum wage will be next month.“Working people deserve to work to live, not just live to work,” the report said.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet went into a huddle at this year’s cabinet retreat in Charlottetown, it was clear that housing was top of mind. When Trudeau emerged from the retreat last week, he told reporters some of the measures Canada most needs.

letter to his city colleagues, Shawn Lewis highlighted municipal data that shows 319 people arriving from outside the city in the first half of 2023 seeking homelessness support services have been sent back to communities “where they have a natural support network.”Of those 319 individuals, more than 25 per cent were initially “sent here against their will, or under false pretenses, by various individuals and organizations from outside London.”“That represents almost one person every other day,” Lewis explained in his letter.He did not identify the individuals and or organizations allegedly sending people to London for the city’s homeless resources. But he did confirm to Global News that they are aware of some locations these people are coming from.“I don’t think that it’s an organized effort on behalf of a municipal service provider, in any community, and I’m not even convinced that they’re intentionally trying to make the problem somebody else’s,” he said in an interview.“I think in some cases, these may be organizations or individuals with really good intentions.